Kobe recounts 2013 injury, trying to pull Achilles back into place
Kobe Bryant will play his final NBA game Wednesday night, but the unfortunate reality is the career of the Kobe that most know, came to an end three years ago on Tuesday, April 12, 2013.
It was then, in a contest against the pre-championship Golden State Warriors, that Bryant ruptured his left Achilles tendon, ending his season and accelerating the decline of his abilities. In the 106 games he has played since that date, his field goal success rate is 8.3 percent lower, and his player efficiency rating is 7.5 points lower than his career averages.
Stories have been out for a few years now about the night that Bryant suffered the career-altering injury, and a new account by ESPN's Baxter Holmes includes several nuggets - including how Bryant apparently tried to pull his Achilles tendon back into place.
After feeling what felt like a "kick" to the back of his leg in the fourth quarter of the contest, Bryant collapsed on a drive against Harrison Barnes. When Kobe's Achilles tendon began rolling up his left leg, he tried to pull it back down, according to Holmes.
"I just tried to buy a little bit of time," Bryant told ESPN. "I was trying to figure out a way to play around it because if I can walk on my heel, maybe I can get around it because I don't have to get up on my toe. I had worked so hard to get us there. I'll be damned if we lose this fucking game and all that hard work goes to shit. I tried to finish the job."
The job that season was trying to carry into the playoffs a Lakers squad that had been hugely disappointing despite the additions of Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, and coach Mike D'Antoni.
In those final seven games the 34-year-old Bryant played 95 percent of the Lakers' minutes, resting for only 16:45.
After the injury, Bryant legendarily stayed in the game to hit both his free throws before limping to the locker room. From Holmes:
In the training room, Bryant, still in his jersey, sits on the edge of a training table, surrounded by members of the team's athletic training staff. (Lakers trainer Gary) Vitti performs a Thompson test: squeezing Bryant's left calf. If Bryant's foot does not flex toward the floor, his Achilles is gone. The test is positive. Vitti tells Bryant the news. The room full of people is still, silent. Bryant hurls two Gatorade bottles, both full, at the wall. One explodes. There are tears in Bryant's eyes.
"The Achilles is like the beast in sports that every athlete fears," Bryant tells Holmes today. "It's a long recovery. Nobody has really been the same when they come back from it - if they come back from it - and here I am dealing with this shit. I don't know if I can. I'm tired as hell. I knew how much it took just to get to this situation now, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this shit."